New PlayStation 30-day expiry timer has players worried about losing their own games

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Players with PlayStation 4 and 5 have been seeing a timer appear on their purchased digital games, leading to concerns they might lose access if they don’t play them often enough.

Modder Lance McDonald recently discovered that Sony has implemented a new form of digital rights management (DRM) for all PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 digital games. This DRM requires each game to connect to the internet every 30 days to verify ownership.

He also explained that if you don’t connect your gaming console to the internet for 30 days, you’ll lose access to any digital games you buy starting April 25th. A screenshot showed the game Don’t Starve now includes a section showing how much time you have left to stay connected.

PlayStation DRM timer is reportedly just a bug

Many viewers pointed out the timer shown during streams was unreliable, appearing randomly during only a few games. It was also strange that Sony didn’t comment on adding digital rights management (DRM), especially since it’s often a debated issue.

Okay, so here’s the deal: games I already owned were fine, but anything new I buy now seems to have a 30-day limit. After that, they just…stop working if I’m not online. I’ve tried setting my console as the primary one, but that doesn’t fix it. Basically, all digital games are going to become unplayable after a month for everyone who owns them. It’s super frustrating!

— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) April 25, 2026

I was starting to worry about a problem with the game, but then the folks over at “Does it play,” a site dedicated to keeping older games alive, said they’d heard from someone on the inside that it was just a glitch. That was a relief!

According to a recent post on X, Sony unintentionally caused a problem while addressing a security flaw. They were aware of the confusing user interface, but didn’t consider it a high priority issue.

So, I’m hearing from someone on the inside that the whole Sony DRM mess wasn’t intentional. Apparently, they were trying to patch a security hole and accidentally messed something else up in the process. They’ve known about the weird menus for a while, but didn’t think it was a big deal to fix right away. Hopefully, they’ll come out and explain what’s going on soon!

— Does it play? (@DoesItPlay1) April 25, 2026

As a few people mentioned, even if this release was a mistake, Sony likely had some version of this user interface in development beforehand.

Despite the ongoing issues, Sony hasn’t yet made an official statement. We’ll share any new information as soon as we get it.

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2026-04-27 13:21